Tax adviser gets 4 years in prison for 81 million shekel fraud

A Tel Aviv court has sentenced David Kardish, a tax adviser, to 48 months in prison, 18 months on probation, and a fine of 300,000 shekels ($76,000 US). Kardish had pled guilty to providing fictitious accounts worth millions of shekels and serving as both a lawyer and an accountant without a license.

From 2011 until 2013, Kardish deceived his clients into thinking that he was a lawyer and an accountant, and that he was a partner in the accounting firm of Tal Dil. Tal Dil had no knowledge of these claims.

During that time, Kardish created at more than a thousand fictitious tax accounts for 57 different companies. The accounts' total value about about 81 million shekels ($20.5 million US), which should have required the payment of about 11 million shekels ($2.8 million US) in taxes.

In order to carry out his fraud, Kardish used the information of at least 150 real companies, without their knowledge or agreement.

He had been investigated once before and his computer seized, ye Kardish continued with his crimes until he was caught a second time.